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School board declines offer of property

Two houses sit on property adjacent to the Putnam County school system's central office. The school board has declined an offer to purchase the property.

Jim Herrin | Herald-Citizen

Posted
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 12:18 pm

BY JIM HERRIN

As the Putnam County school board ponders a decision on whether or not to purchase a 45-acre tract of property on Lee Seminary Road as the site for a proposed new elementary school, officials have turned down an offer to purchase a small tract of land adjacent to the current central office at 1400 E. Spring St.

Director of Schools Jerry Boyd brought up the proposal at the conclusion of the last board meeting.

"There was a public auction (for) the property next to this building," he said. "There's an acre that fronts Spring Street that was auctioned, and the person that won the auction has contacted the county and, knowing that we might be interested, (offered to) sell it to the board at the cost that he paid for it at the auction, plus fees."

Boyd said the property was purchased at auction for $180,000 with a 10 percent auction fee, or a total $198,000.

"As far as the future, it's good to have property," he told the board. "It's certainly reasonable to (consider purchasing property) when you have opportunities. But we have other needs. The question is (whether this) is a high enough need to spend $200,000 on an acre when we don't have an immediate plan for that property."

Boyd said other land priorities should probably take precedence.

"We certainly want to focus our attention on securing property with our long range intent on (building) an elementary school, and even our discussion about a future high school," he said. "This would not be an immediate need."

Board chair Kim Cravens agreed.

"We would all like to have the piece of property, but I think that we all recognize the fact that there's other things that are higher priorities," she said. "We do appreciate the opportunity."